As the Internet continues to expand exponentially, the role of search engines has dramatically increased. The sheer volume of Internet content has quickly become impossible for a human user to utilize manually. Thus, the use of search engine technology has become a vital tool in the increasing the usefulness of the Internet.
While great strides have been made in increasing the relevancy of search results, little advancement have taken into consideration the context and historical data of a search engine user. Additionally, very little advancement has been made that incorporate applications or widgets within the search results page interface. In contrast, current search engines generally provide a simple list of hyperlinks in response to a user query. As such, a user is required to identify and select the link that is most relevant to his or her query. Furthermore, a user may have to take additional steps to procure the results he or she is seeking.
A particularly poignant example is that of a user looking to plan a vacation. In the current environment, a user may enter a query such as “flights from boston to los angeles.” In response, the user may receive a plurality of sites that relate to purchasing tickets. This paradigm is detrimental for multiple reasons. First, a user still has to navigate through a myriad of search results, many of which may not be the desired website. Secondly, current search engines will only present information relating to instant search query. That is, in the current state of the art, users planning a vacation from Boston to Los Angeles would have to perform multiple searches (on top of the “flights from boston to los angeles” search) to book a hotel, rent a car, find a restaurant, and perform other tourist activities.
Thus, the current state of the art fails to consider the “big picture” of user search behavior. Namely, current search engine techniques simply respond to the user's query directly and do not attempt to ascertain the nature of the query by using a user's context and historical search history. Thus, there exists a need in the current state of the art to enhance the user search experience by providing contextual applications that are provided in response to an anticipated user goal.